It is prelude no. 2 in WTC 1.
Brace yourself because it is far more difficult than prelude no. 1.
Start with bars 29 - 34: They are the most difficult.
Bars 25 - 28 and bars 35 - 38 are easy and straightforward.
Bars 1 - 24 follow exactly the same pattern - just the notes change.
The main difficutlies in this prelude are:
1. fingering. If you sort this out the prelude becomes a piece of cake. Otherwise your hand will be consistently stretching and you will tire halfway. Spend as much time sorting fingering as you need to. You want comfort and easiness.
2. Bringing it up to speed without the left hand lagging behind. If your LH is good I see no reason to learn this prelude with hands sparate - just go straight to hands together.
3. Memorising the notes (or chord progressions).
Now as an example on how to work on it, consider bars 1 - 24:
I suggest you break it down into seven bar sections, and consider each bar as a unit (on bars 1 - 24 the same figurationis repeated twice in a bar, so you can cut your work in half right there). Then proceed to do repeated note-groups using a bar as a unit like so:
1. Master Bar 1. Then bar 2, then bar 3, then bar 4, then bar 5, then bar 6 and finally bar 7. Just work on each of them in isolation without worrying about joining them.
2. Now tackle the bars in pairs: bars 1+2, then bars 2+3, then bars 3+4, then bars 4+5, then bars 5+6, then bars 5+6 and finally bars 6+7. Have you noticed the overlap? The important point is that you work with full concentration on each of these paris of bars without worrying about how it will all come together. Trust me, it will. Just make sure that you master each section completely before moving on to the next.
3. Now do the bars in threes:
1+2+3
2+3+4
3+4+5
4+5+6
5+6+7
Again notice the extensive overlap. As you increase the number of bars, the time needed to master the sections will actually
decrease because you are getting more and more familiar with the passages. It is [1] and [2] above that will take the longest. So this process takes care of the memorisation as well - as long as you do not move on untill you have perfected the session you are working on.
4. Now join 4 bars:
1+2+3+4
2+3+4+5
3+4+5+6
4+5+6+7
Have you noticed that the first and last groups of four bars are overlapping on bar 4? This means that you should really be abel to play the full section now: Bars 1 - 7 (If you cannot, just keep increasing the groups size by adding a new bar at every step).
Mastering these seven bars should take 45 mins - 1hr.
Next day, go through the same process again. It will take far less time, maybe 20 mins. So go ahead and use the extra time to do the same with bars 7 - 13 (Have you noticed that I started with bar 7, and not bar 8? This will provide an overlap later on).
On day 3, you should be able to do bars 1 - 7 after 10 minutes, and bars 7 - 13 after 20 minutes. Add bars 13 - 19.
On day 4, bars 1- 7 should be learned and memorised, bars 7 - 13 almost there. So join it together: Bars 1 - 13. Bars 13 - 19 should start to get together. Add bars 19 - 25.
On day 5 you should be able to join bars1 - 19, and keep working on bars 19 - 25. Add bars 25 - 28 (they are the easiest).
On day 6 join together bars 1 - 28.
Now if you followed my advice to start with the most difficult bars (29 - 34), then you should have been doing the same sort of repeated group work with them all along. (but because the pattern in these bars is far less repetitive, you may have to choose as a unit not a whole bar, but perhaps a group of four notes).
In any case, on day 7 you should be able to join together bars 1 - 34, and still have time to do bars 34 - 38.
Finally on day 8, you could join everything together.
There: The whole prelude mastered and memorised in 8 days with two one hour practise sessions a day (practice session 1 to work on bars 29 - 34, practise session 2 to work on bars 1 - 24).
This leaves you with almost three weeks to pefect the piece and practice performing it to friends and family.
Unfortunately
, the scenario above may turn out not to be feasible for you. It may take you more than 2 or 3 days to really get to grips with a 7 bar section. Still the scheme above is valid. Then again , maybe you will be able to do it in far less time than the suggested above.
Try it and tell us what happened.
(In any case, after three days, you will pretty much know if it is feasible or not).
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
Topic: J.S. Bach's Prelude in C Minor from Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (Read 26750 times)